Ubisoft announces upcoming James Cameron Avatar game

Ubisoft has announced that its Massive Entertainment studio, responsible for Tom Clancy's The Division, is working on an as-yet untitled game based on James Cameron's Avatar franchise.

While the project hasn't progressed far enough to get a launch title, Ubisoft is preparing the hype train early with the promise of a game developed by Massive in partnership with Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox Interactive to put gamers on Pandora, the glow-in-the-dark floating-rocks planet from the film Avatar. 'James Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment changed the way we think about immersive storytelling with the first Avatar,' burbled David Polfeldt, Massive managing director, at the announcement of the partnership. 'The ambition that they have for the forthcoming films and this game is really inspiring. It’s a privilege to work with them and we’re honoured that they’ve entrusted us to create an experience worthy of the Avatar name.'

Lightstorm was convinced to work with Ubisoft on the project, the team claims, after Massive demonstrated a prototype runnign on the Snowdrop game engine - the same engine used in Massive's oft-delayed massively multiplayer third-person shoot-'em-up The Division. 'What impressed me about Massive were the group’s passion for this project and the power of its Snowdrop engine,' claimed James Cameron. 'I believe Ubisoft’s team at Massive Entertainment are absolutely the right partners to bring the beauty and danger of Pandora to life.'

Full details, including a planned launch date and even the name of the game, are not yet available.